Antephialtic
by KennEvans
Summary: Conner had nightmares, and Clark was there for him.


At first, everything was completely normal. Conner stays with Martha, and Clark moves to Metropolis with Lois. Although the old Kent lady was pretty furious at Clark for selling the family's farm and leave Conner with her. Don't get her wrong. She loves Conner with all her heart, but she doesn't look forward to be a mother again at this point of her life, hence, the title Grandma she gave to herself for Conner to call her.

Conner is a really great kid. He's very thoughtful, loving, protective, easy going, exuberant and pretty careless. He's really bad at controlling his powers, always accidentally breaking and destroying things around the house, more worse than Clark for someone who's smaller than The Blur at his age. But Martha can't stay mad at him for too long, as the word sorry was constantly heard from him, trying to fix things and always give her warm, gentle hugs and pecks on the cheeks. His attitude is very endearing and adorable.

All in all, Conner is a great company and life is great.

It all started a few weeks later. It was 3 in the morning when Martha woke up to the sound of a boy sobbing and whimpering. She grabbed her robe and immediately went to Conner's bedroom to check on him. The poor boy was having a nightmare, his face looks terrified as hell, his hands clutching the bed and hot tears mixed with sweats spilled down his cheeks. Martha's heart shattered at the sad sight. She was about to wake him up when Conner's face expression relaxed and his hands unclenched, his breathing slowly became even. Martha sigh in relief.

The next morning, Conner looked dizzy and a bit shaken up, no gibberish talk and he's less cheery than usual. Martha didn't want to pry. No teenage boy wants comfort from their grandma for the nightmares they suffered. So she asked him if he's okay. She received a nod and a quick kiss on her cheeks before the boy left for school. They'll talk about this later. Maybe.

Few nights later and the nightmares are getting worse. Conner thrashed violently during his unpleasant dreams. He muttered things like "I'm sorry" and "Please don't leave me" over and over again in his sleeps. Sometimes Martha woke him up but sometimes he's awake on his own before Martha could wake him. The dreams made Conner tremble and shaking really bad, he'll became breathless and his heart pounds so irregularly that his chest hurt, having a brief panic attack. Martha will stay by him side and calm him down, telling him to take deep, slow breath until he fall sleep.

Conner refused to talk about the nightmares that bothered him and Martha is worried. The half Kryptonian lost his appetite and sometimes he got headache for not sleeping to avoid any nightmares, which makes him grumpy. He's getting weaker and always exhausted as the days passed. Martha even got a call from the school's nurse to pick Conner up because he fainted caused by a panic attack. Things are getting out of hand.

Martha decided to call Clark. Maybe Conner will open up and have a heart to heart if he talks to a guy. Clark is worried to hear Conner's condition so he spend the weekend and try to get his little brother to talk to him.

It was a nice Saturday evening when Clark asked Conner the questions about his nightmares, alone. Conner didn't speak a thing. He didn't make eye contact with Clark, he said absolutely nothing. The older Kryptonian wait in patience but at the end of the day, he got nothing.

Conner open up to him about 8 hours later.

Clark was lying down on his bed, wrecking his brain to find a way to make his clone talk when his super hearing perked up and he heard Conner's heartbeat started to race. His breathing became erratic. He tiptoed to Conner's bedroom to see him having a nightmare. His legs kicking the air, his hands clutching his bed so tightly and tears spilling down his cheeks faster than Clark had ever seen from anyone in his life. He shot a glanced at Martha who just came to check on Conner.

Clark quickly went to Conner's bed and try to wake him up. Conner bolted upright, his eyes clearly shows that he's super terrified of whatever he just dreamed. Conner reach out for Clark and he hugged him before Conner broke down, his face pressed to Clark's chest. Still trembling violently while catching his breath.

"Its okay Conner. Deep breath. I got you. Its okay" Clark said, rubbing his hands up and down Conner's back.

"I'm sorry that I tried to kill you with Kryptonite"

"W-what" Clark's eyes went wide.

"I'm sorry that I shot grandma and knocked her out in the mansion. I'm sorry I set the mansion on fire. I'm sorry I fell into Lionel's lies. I'm sorry that I'm half Luthor. I'm sorry for what I did to Lois" he continued to whimper, sobbing into Clark's chest, desperately hugging him in eager.

"Conner.." Clark was lost at words, too shocked to even brain about what's going on. How did Conner remember all of this?

"I know Tess tried to kill me with Cyanide. Its not just nightmares. They're memories. I was a bad person. I am a bad person. Please don't get rid of me or kill me. I want to live. I won't do bad stuff again. Ever!!" Conner was beyond terrified and its killing Clark and Martha seeing him like this.

Clark found himself crying too, fresh tears coming out of his eyes. All these nightmares were about him hurting them and got disowned. He turn around to look at Martha who is silently crying too. Shaking her head in dismay. They have a lot to work with Conner.

"Conner. Hey, come on, look at me" Clark slowly pulled Conner to sit upright and look directly at him. The boy's face and eyes are bright red from crying, his broken expression shows an early sign of a second outburst.

"I love you. And Lois although she have a weird way of showing it. And Tess. She tried to kill you because she loves you so much, she thought that you're going to fall sick before the metamorphosis happened. She didn't want so see you suffer from the rapid mitosis. No one does"

"Really?" he sniffed.

"Really. Also, Chloe loves you. She always asked grandma about you, and Ollie too. Everyone cares about you. Especially grandma. What you did to her was not your fault. Its beyond your control. Never once we want kill you nor get rid of you. You're part of our life now and we love you. Everything happened were in the past now and just details that no one cares. Okay? I love you, so much"

"I love you Conner" Martha adds in, enfolding both his boys in a hug.

"I love you guys too" Conner said cracking before he cried again.

The three of them stay like that for a few minutes when they realised Conner's crying had subsided and he's in deep sleep, bearing no nightmares. And the next day he went back to his normal cheery attitude that they all had missed.

Problem solved.


End file.
